Re: Control Center Behavior

[Andrew Coulam <aigiskos yahoo com>]

I know that some users would like to be able to mimic
their favorite desktop and that the mimic option would
help the transistion from the desktop they used before
to their new GNOME desktop.

On the other hand, shouldn't we be trying to have
users want GNOME itself to be their favorite desktop,
not just a carbon copy of the desktop they left
behind?Having the desktop at the very beginning ask
you whether you would like it to look like someone
else's product seems to detract from the GNOME desktop
itself.

What is KDE's look, for example?  It's hard to pin
KDE's look down because it is from the beginning very
different, depending upon which "look" the user
chooses in the initial mimic screen.

I would think that users should be attracted to
GNOME's default look (whatever that may be) and should
at least sample all the hard work that the usability
people (et al) have put in to make that look
attractive and usable.  

If you would like to put in the mimic option into the
preferences panel but not have it come up when the
user logs into GNOME for the first time, then this
concern would be alleviated.

Anyway, that's just my two cents. :-)  Cheers.

P.S.  I don't mean to start up the oft frequented
debate of "don't be too much like
{windows|mac|macOSX}".  There is always a delicate
balance of being similar enough to the "dominant"
desktop to make new users be comfortable while still
trying to make things better (and thus different) from
that desktop.  I just think that having the option of
making things *exactly* like Windows from the very
beginning is a cop out.

--- Sam Steele <chip c99 org> wrote:
> That's how KDE tackles the problem (it pops up that
> little wizard asking
> you which style you want the first time you run it).
>  The one thing I
> didn't like about this when I first saw it was "what
> if I want both?". I
> like the Windows style of most things, but I prefer
> the KDE widget set
> to the Redmond one, and in GNOME's case I prefer the
> menu panel to a
> main menu on the bottom panel.  While I know I can
> change that under the
> "Look & Feel" applet in the KDE control center, it's
> still an awkward
> feeling to want to press "none of the above" and not
> have that
> available.
> 
> -Sam
> 
> On Thu, 2002-07-18 at 17:37, Bruce Robert Pocock
> wrote:
> > On Thu, 2002-07-18 at 17:26, Dan Mann wrote:
> > > 
> > > OK, everyone likes it different.  How about
> this:  when you run GNOME for
> > > the first time it says, "Would you like to use
> the default desktop settings?
> > > YES no"
> > > 
> > > That way, if you are not technical or don't
> care, you hit enter and go on
> > > your merry way.  Other wise, you could choose a
> couple of options like
> > > during ximian setup.  Makes everyone happy!
> > > 
> > > Dan
> > 
> > 
> > [?]   What Do You Want Your Desktop To Look Like?
> > 
> >  (*) Normal GNOME 2.0 Desktop
> > 
> >  ( ) Mimic: [ Windows     ]
> >             [ Classic Mac ]
> > 	    [ MacOS X     ]
> >             [ CDE / KDE   ]
> >             [ GNOME 1.4   ]
> > 
> > _______________________________________________
> > desktop-devel-list mailing list
> > desktop-devel-list gnome org
> >
>
http://mail.gnome.org/mailman/listinfo/desktop-devel-list
> 
> 
> _______________________________________________
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>
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=====
~~~~~~~~~
dissertus scribendo latine videri volo.

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